Even though the North Easterly wind was freezing, I had to go out and test out the tarp and Trangia. I started building a normal day shelter. The wind was blowing the thing everywhere, and I was surprised at just how lightweight they were compared to the tarps I’d used in the Army. Without taking off, I managed to control the ridge line enough to tie the two ends to the tree and then to peg down the two corners. Without pausing, I took it down to try the same shape shelter, but this time using bugees I’d brought along. There seems a split vote between using bungees and using a fixed rope ridgeline. I thought that the bungees allowed the centre line of the tarp to sag. I also considered that after a while, the bungee would wear because of the rubbing against the tree bark. Therefore the rope and ridge line gets my vote. The knots I settled on were the midshipmans and the Evenk. I did attach the edges of the centre ridgeline tarp by a small karabiner. This gave a nice taught ridgeline. I also used the bungees to make the shelter roof straighter.

I tried two other styles before I left the shelter up. One was a tree-to-tree bivvi using basha pole and a “no tree” bivvi (again just using the basha pole). I was quite pleased with these as well. After a couple more shelters (just to practice the knots) and as it was so cold, I left the final attempt up and got down to the business of a serious brew! Best time to get up the shelter was 5 minutes. Not bad I suppose in a high wind and wearing gloves.

Using the new Swedish Army Trangia (SAT) I timed brewing 1litre of water. It took 13 minutes, which I thought was pretty good in this temperature. Okay, it wasn’t freezing, but not that warm either. What did surprise me was that it’s not as flammable as I thought. You have to hold the match to the meths for a while (or is it me?) A good brew warmed me up and I can quite understand how making a brew improves moral when in survival situations. Full course meal next!!

The shelter and brew made things quite comfortable and it was only the 6 Nations rugby that made me return home. As England lost…I should have stayed out there!!

At last, the late frosts have finally gone it seems and as predicted, a few warmer days, a few rain showers and the ground and trees seems to have sprung into life. Of course the wakening of the woods starts far earlier but it isn’t that obvious on the surface. There is actually growth to see now on the trees and on the floor of the woods.

Today’s walk found me batting away flying insects, coming across two bumblebees and a fritillary butterfly. I also noticed a nuthatch and a willow tit. I even heard the sound of spring. The woodpecker’s hammering echoing through the wood. Before I settled down for a brew, I noticed a movement in the undergrowth and came across a young rabbit trying hard to remain camouflaged in the leaf litter. It remained stock still as I approached and I was able to get very close to take some photos. This moment was spring personified. The sound, the smell, the visions of spring.

With the arrival of spring came the arrival of my hammock from DD hamocks. This was the last piece of kit to make up my basic Bushcraft items. My main project today was to rig the hammock and try it out with the tarp. It was all quite easy and not as complicated as I feared. The tarp went up first (as it had just started to rain) and the hammock was slung underneath. I had researched into various types and makes of hammock. Hennesey Hammocks being the favoured it seems, but I just can’t justify £80. The DD came in at exactly £20. The tape ties are a bit strange as they are like draw strings. Thus there are two ends to tie around the tree. I ended up tying them as one piece and this worked quite well, but this method didn’t allow a great distance between the trees. I will have to check this, but it worked ok for today and at least I didn’t collapse the hammock when I got in it.

The rain provided another situation and that was whether the tarp was long enough to cover the hammock. It wasn’t, therefore for severe weather, I would have to rig the tarp diagonally. The good thing about this hammock though is the double layer. I can slide in extra insulation or (as the photos on the website show) I can use the second layer as a cover. As it happens, there is enough spare material to almost wrap another layer around you anyway.

After rigging the tarp and hammock, I fired up the Swedish Army Trangia, had a brew and warmed through some baked beans. (Ok ok, not quite there with the wild fare yet!) It was so pleasant just to chill out, that my final task of finding some wood to make a couple of cooking utensils went by the board. Before packing away, I tried another few combinations with the tarp including the diagonal configuration. This did cover the hammock completely.

Verdict for the hammock…a resounding success. I think this beats tent and groundsheet my a long way. Why didn’t we use this when I was in the Army? (Probably ‘cos we had to dig and dig and dig!) I still have to put it to the ultimate test though. The sleep out test!